Viburnum Buds

Spring is finally here, even though some recent weather didn't feel very spring-like. Second only to our azaleas, the viburnum blossoms in late April, filling the yard with a sweet fragrance. While the soon to be blossoms are white/pink, the buds are vivid red. The group of buds here are about the size of a US half dollar coin, so each of the buds are quite small.

When looking at the image in full view, you can see the tiny hairs on the leaves - this explains why viburnum leaves stick to gloves and clothing.

The image here is a composite of seven individual photos, taken at slightly different focal distances. The idea is to achieve an image with all of the important elements in focus. This is impossible to achieve using a macro lens due to its shallow depth of field, so taking multiple photos of the same object at different distances allows one to stack the images together to obtain an image with the subject in focus.

A difficult thing about focus stacking is the mystery of the entire process. You don't know how things will look until you finish stacking; you can't double check things to make sure things are going to work out. However, that also creates a nice surprise when things work out.